The Tasks and Organisation of the Work of the Council of Defence[2]

Written:December 1, 1918Published:First published in 1931 inLenin Miscellany XVIII.

      Printed from the manuscript.Source:Lenin
	  Collected Works,

      2nd English Edition,

      Progress Publishers,1971,

      Moscow,Volume 42,

      pages112b-114a.Translated:Bernard IsaacsTranscription\Markup:D. WaltersPublic Domain:Lenin Internet Archive

      (2003).You may freely copy, distribute,
	display and perform this work; as well as make derivative and
	commercial works. Please credit “Marxists Internet
	Archive” as your source.•README

Setup in the Food Commissariat a Department for improvingdistributionof foodstuffs, for improving thedistributing
    apparatus.

MergeChief Economic Administration with the Food Commissariat +Prodput
    . Instruct Food Commissariat to work up the question (a) of delivering
    foodstuffs to the 3rd shift of the Tula Cartridge Factory

    +Simbrisk Cartridge Factory

(b)of introducing Red Army rations for peat and coal workers near
    Moscow—alsothose on firewood jobs.

II.Bonuses Commission. On question II 3 commissions
    Collective Liability Commission.those on firewood jobs. State Control.Flying inspectionthose on firewood jobs.

IV.& V. Krasin

    Krasin + Nevsky +

Gorbunov[3]

VI.Fuel Commission:

    Lenin,

     Rykov,

     Volkovsky,

     Nevsky,

Radchenko[4]Question of agents vs contractors.

VII.Supreme Military Inspection.

1)orderthe Food Commissariat in shortest possible time to
    submit a plan for greatly intensifying grain purveyance as well as
    fodder;

2)whenincreasing the number of trios, local food supply
workers to be appointed to them;

3)directComrade Krasin to carry out an urgent
investigation into the question of utilising the stocks of boots in
Petrograd;(Khodinsky warehouse ober Food

			     Commissariat[1]

4)briefdemands or irregularities to be immediately
reported to the chairman.

[1]Thisrefers to the warehouse belonging directly to the People’s
Commissariat for Food of the R.S.F.S.R.—Ed.

[2]TheCouncilof Defence (Council of Workers and Peasants’
Defence) was set up by the All-Russia Central Executive Committee on
November 30, 1918, as a special organ of the Soviet state vested with full
powers in the matter of mobilising the country’s forcÇes and resources
in the interests of defence. Lenin was appointed Chairman of the Council of
Defence.

Thedocuments published here were written by Lenin at
the first meeting of the Council of Defence on December 1, 1918. First
Lenin outlined the immeÇdiate tasks of the Council and the agenda for
its first sitting (Document 1). Then he jotted down a number of proposals
for elaborating these questions, formulating more detailed proposals on the
food question (Documents 2 and 3). Lenin’s proposals were reflected in the
decisions of the Council of Defence adopted at its sitting (seeLenin
MiscellanyXVIII, pp. 243-45).

[3]OnPoint 4 of the agenda (”On the Mobilisation of
Intellectuals”)L. B.  Krasin was instructed to draw up a draft decision
for themobilisation of technical personnel; L. B. Krasin, V. I. Nevskyand
N. P. Gorbunov were instructed to draw up draft regulationson
questionnaires to be submitted to the C.P.C.

[4]TheCouncil of Defence passed a decision for the fuel question to be
considered by a special five-man commission, which was to be summoned by
Lenin. The commission met on December 2,1918 (see the next document).